The present invention relates to insulated boot blankets to increase the warmth of the wearer's feet while engaged in sedentary activities such as that of a hunter on a deer stand or a spectator at an outdoor sporting event such as a football game.
The cooling of the extremities and in particular the feet has long been recognized as a serious problem in sedentary activities in the outdoors and various proposals have been advanced for dealing with this problem. In one such approach, the boots are provided with removable insulative linings. Examples of such boots are illustrated in the Wilson U.S. Pat. No. 2,398,510 dated Apr. 16, 1946, the Woyach U.S. Pat. No. 2,440,563 dated Apr. 27, 1948, the Smith U.S. Pat. No. 2,439,493, dated Apr. 13, 1948, and the German Pat. No. 607,268 dated Dec. 20, 1934. Boots of this type with removable liners are generally front opening and basically provide for the removal of the inner insulative lining when the additional warmth is not required. Because such boots are generally provided with rigid feet or sole structures, carrying and storage problems generally exist.
Another approach such as that disclosed in the Jacobson U.S. Pat. No. 3,373,512 dated Mar. 19, 1968 and the Gibson U.S. Pat. No. 4,099,341 dated July 11, 1978 have utilized stiff insulating foam material such as polystyrene. Such boots may be worn over the shoe-encased foot and the transportation and storage thereof is generally a problem due to their rigidity.
Another approach to the problem is disclosed in the Saunders U.S. Pat. No. 2,984,917 dated May 23, 1961 and the Henderson U.S. Pat. No. 3,875,687 dated Apr. 8, 1975 in which insulative covers are provided to be worn externally of winter sport shoes such as ice skates and ski boots. Because of the specialized nature of such footwear, such insulative coverings, though generally flexible, do not provide an essentially airtight and watertight barrier to and are generally quite difficult to properly place in position.
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a novel boot blanket which obviates many of the problems of the prior art and which may be easily carried to the place of use, easily used, and easily removed for the return home.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel method of construction and boot blanket which is flexible and light in weight while maintaining excellent insulative characteristics.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a novel method and boot blanket in which the means for selectively adjusting the size of the leg opening may be used to maintain the boot blanket in a closed position.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel method of construction and boot blanket which is rear opening and provided with handling means to facilitate the insertion of the shoe encased foot into the boot blanket.
Yet a further object of the present invention is to provide a novel method of construction and boot blanket including means for carrying the boot blanket when not in use adjacent the small of the back to free the hands and to provide additional warmth at that part of the anatomy.
These and many other objects and advantages will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from a perusal of the claims and the following detailed description of preferred embodiments and read in conjunction with the appended drawings.